[Steve feels he has been very mature in letting Beckett and Rydia go down to the funeral home while he stays at the park. He thought about calling them in the middle of the day, but he could just picture Beckett's unimpressed face and hear Rydia telling him not to fuss, Steve, she's a grown woman. So he didn't, and valiantly tried to smother his anxiety and concentrate on scraping earth over the frozen bodies of long-dead strangers.

He gets back to the house at the end of the day, tired and filthy and cold, and Beckett and Rydia aren't back yet. He looks at the time. It's getting close to lockdown. ...They're probably on their way. They'll be coming in the door, any minute now. Right?

...Hell.

Steve wrestles out his tablet and opens a message to his wayward teammates, trying to swallow down his nerves.]

Rydia? Beckett? Hey, please tell me you're almost back to the house. It's just. It's getting late, is all.

Characters: Steve, Beckett
Location Building 33 (the funeral home)
Date: Day 77, middayish
Summary: Steve hurries down to the funeral home to rescue Rydia and Beckett from their idiocy. He—well, he rescues one of them, anyway.
Warnings: Possibly discussion of the screaming and other bad noises Beckett witnessed while Rydia was dying horribly as described here. (Which should like, get it's own warning. It's awful.) Probably grief, yelling, high likelihood of some minor violence and breaking shit. This is an unhappy day.

( Read more... )

Characters: House, Haurchefant, Clayton (and anyone on Clayton's end of the tablet who wants to chime in)
Location Building 131 (the hospital)
Date: Day 78, nighttime
Summary: House has Haurche tie him up for his night in the morgue, and Clayton tells him he's making really bad life choices after it's too late.
Warnings: Possible references to Rydia's horrifying recent death, and some references to House's own when it comes. Possible discussion of suicidal ideations.

( I laugh in the face of danger, ha ha ha ha! )

PROMPT ONE, MORNING

Rise and shine! Now, usually I'm not an early-to-rise kind of guy, but I'm like a kid on Christmas morning.

[He moves the tablet back so it's at arms length, balanced in one hand. Slowly, with the other, he holds up a key. His eyebrows waggle in triumph.]

This, boys and girls, was in the safe, and I'm willing to bet on my grave [You know, the one that he can't stay in.] that this beautiful little bastard opens the locked door outta here. Shall we?

[Behold, Norfinbury, as Nathan uses his key and opens the door to...a whole new frozen wasteland. Light floods in from the outside, and Nathan stumbles back, swearing in surprise. The tablet's feed shakes as he nearly drops it, but he catches it.]

Jesus. They could've put a warning up. Danger: retinas may bleed upon opening.

PROMPT TWO, DAY

[So, naturally, Nathan went through the door he opened in the post office. He's been keeping his tablet feed open all day, and ranting and talking to nothing (or whoever talks to him in return). It's safe to tune him out, or just check in every so often throughout the day. At some points, he seems to forget he even has the thing on and fades into slice, so all that can be heard is his huffing and puffing as he tramps onward through snow and rubble.

Or, well, if you're lucky or particularly vindictive, you might catch him as he turns the tablet around to make a stupid face, slides in the snow and falls face-first, his tablet flinging from his hands. The feed doesn't cut out, but everyone's getting a wonderful view of the snow and sky as he screams, sounding like a little girl.]

PROMPT THREE, EVENING

[This is when things start to get good.]

Is that a building, do you see that building? Christ, thought I was done for!

[There's still a bit of time left before lockdown, but it is getting late, and he hasn't run into anything. It's clear that he's nervous, getting antsy that he isn't going to find anywhere he can stay for lockdown. Nathan books it toward the building he sees, and when he makes his way inside...]

Holy Shit.

[He holds the tablet up. It's...a grocery store. There's food--fresh food, produce, even a bakery! Nathan spins the tablet around again to address whatever audience he still has at this point.]

Are you getting all this? I'm not hallucinating, am I? There's seriously real food here? Fuck, well, I guess I've come this far, might as well try it out!

[Excuse him while, as he moves forward through the building, he both shoves his face and his bag full of the stuff he plans to later shove into his face some more. It's legit, guys.]

PROMPT FOUR, NIGHT

We have reached the end of our broadcast day.

[Nathan is breathless as he addresses everyone for the final time. It's just hit lockdown, and he's breathless, having barely made it into a building in time to, well, survive. He sinks down, wiping his forehead. He's not paying much attention to the space around him, but anyone else will be able to see a backdrop of toys, toys, and more toys.]

So, recap: was almost a bummer, but if you want to brave nearly getting locked out because it doesn't seem like there's any houses immediately outside the post office so far as I can tell, you can find a pretty sweet food stash straight east. Oh, and I'm guessing it's one of those places that you can't stay overnight, because once it hit seven, my body was directing me the fuck outta dodge despite me having no idea where else the fuck to go. So, don't count on that as an overnight pad to crash in.

[He gives a thumbs up before shoving a piece of bread into his mouth and talking while he's chewing. You know, like the classy young man he is.]

Everything's fine, though! I've got the luck of the Irish on my side.